This article was first published in ALB Insights, a weekly, ad-free premium newsletter that provides analysis and opinions related to the important news and trends in Asia’s fast-growing legal markets. Showcasing a mix of features, Q&As with key figures, and profiles of some of the hottest firms and service providers, Insights will available only to paid subscribers at the end of its free trial period.
To subscribe to Insights, please email taranjit.kaur@thomsonreuters.com.
Firm name: Legistify
Year of founding: 2015
Located: Headquartered in Uttar Pradesh, India
Founders: Akshat Singhal and Ritesh
What they do: It is a technology platform that helps users find, consult and hire top legal professionals. With an end-to-end case management support, Legistify connects users to the right lawyers who can meet requirements such as consultation on legal matters, drafting legal contracts, agreement review and legal process outsourcing in a confidential and hassle-free manner. The hand-picked lawyer panel deals with areas ranging from corporate and consumer matters to divorce and matrimonial issues.
Apart from their "virtual general counsel” legal solutions for corporates and SMEs, the startup also provides services to many NGOs and not-for-profits. They have a panel of over 1,000 lawyers from across 80-plus cities in India at the moment.
Markets serving: At present, it primarily focuses and serves the Indian market.
Capital raised till date: Undisclosed
Key clients: Startups, SMEs, MSMEs, and B2C customers aged between 25 to 50 who need regular legal assistance in various fields
How the idea came about: “While I was pursuing my engineering degree, I and a bunch of friends worked at a startup where we faced major legal hurdles in terms of paperwork and payments which debilitated the startup from scaling up. Personally, this had a huge impact on me and I decided to help out individuals and companies catering to their legal requirements like finding legal experts, offering legal aids and educating the masses,” says Singhal.
The journey so far: “We faced numerous huge challenges and ups and downs. Whenever there is a new obstacle, we come together and work as a team [to] overcome it. We are trying to revolutionise how things are done in the legal industry at an individual and on organisational levels. A lot of clients and startups reach out to us asking to help them and use our services. So far, we’ve helped 250-plus startups and more than 200 individual SMEs for their legal requirements. We’d like to make legal simple, accessible and affordable,” says Ritesh.
“We plan to establish a nationwide network with handpicked lawyers and build a community around it and increase our client base. In the next two to three years, we are targeting 3,000 lawyers across 150 locations across India.”
What clients say: "Difficult to imagine, but Legistify is on the way to eliminate legal outsourcing nightmares. Not only was I surprised, but was awestruck with the ease they got us register the trademark. They have got me hooked for life." – Legistify user
